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FIVE (UN)REMARKABLE YEARS - AN ANNUAL REPORT

Published 17th December 2018

On hearing that lucky households in Hartlepool were receiving glossy brochures highlighting the unending stream of miracles performed by our glorious leader (all hail the leader) and his team of wonder workers (led by the blessed CEO) the Post wanted to learn a bit more. We found this missive (which can be downloaded from the HBC web site, if you're one of the thousands who binned it on sight) to have a distinct whiff of propaganda about it. Who knew that we lived in such utopia? The wonder of the 2010 Tall Ships event graces the cover. Must have had a time machine, though, as this took place under an earlier regime and most certainly doesn't fit into the 'five year' time scale ...

There's a FOI request out there in the public domain which adds another twist to the tale. Apparently this exercise in self-publicity took the place of one of the usual quarterly Hartbeat brochures. They're usually pretty sugar coated (but do at least attract a certain degree of advertising revenue). So what did this publication cost a local authority which is said to be sailing perilously close to financial disaster? We'll leave this quote from the FOI request to speak for itself; 'Theprinting anddistributionoftheFiveRemarkableYearsbrochurecost £2,964 and £4,908 respectively. Therewasnosponsorship.'